Tag: Cyanogen

One Plus has finally launched its popular One Plus One smartphone in India. This handset is exclusively available on Amazon for those who has received an invite. One Plus One packs a 5.5-inch Full HD display, 2.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 13 megapixel rear camera, 4G LTE Connectivity and more. It runs on the Android 4.4 (KitKat) based CyanogenMod 11S.

Similar to its global invite system, Indian user will need an India-specific invite to purchase this device. To get an invite, you will need to participate in the contests and promotional events hosted on the company’s forums or social media channels as well as by Amazon.in. You can also ask someone who has bought a OnePlus phone for an invite. To learn more, head over to this page. One Plus One comes with a price-tag of INR 21,999.

CyanogenMod (CM) is the most popular AOSP based custom ROM available for Android handsets and tablets out there. The CM team consists of more than 40 talented developers, who work hard in their free time, to add more features to CM, and to support more devices.

CyanogenMod was originally founded by Steve ‘Cyanogen’ Kondik. He had uploaded a test build of an AOSP ROM for the HTC G1, with a few tweaks, over at XDA forums. The reaction he got was overwhelming, and a few years later, CM now runs on more than 550k Android devices.

Well, now the good news is that Samsung has hired Steve Cyanogen’ Kondik. However, don’t get your hopes high on a CM running device from Samsung. Steve was probably hired because of his vast knowledge of the Android OS, its ecosystem and his programming skills.

Steve Kondik has also confirmed that he won’t be blogging about Samsung, especially in relation to CM.He does state that he will be working in Samsung to make Android more awesome. I guess we will see some of Steve’s work in the Galaxy S II successor, the Galaxy S III.

It’s ironic that at the beginning of this year, most of the manufacturers were against the work of the developers and custom ROMs. They were shipping their phones with an encrypted bootloader to prevent modding. But, this move from the manufacturers got a lot of negative response from the developers and the general consumers, alike. In the end, not only did they ease their stance on the bootloader policy, they have also started hiring these talented developers.

Rejoice Android ROM community, CyanogenMod has recently topped over 500,000 unique installs of the latest major version release, CyanogenMod 7. Supported by a team of developers, maintainers, and community staff, CyanogenMod has become one of the most popular customized aftermarket ROMs for Android devices. In fact, it’s officially available for 28 different devices (including tablets and ebook readers) but runs perfectly fine on a total of 44 unmentionables.

What started out as a small project to update and customize the first Android handset, the HTC Dream, has now turned into a huge effort to provide devices with not only the latest and greatest version of Android, but to provide users with phones that are highly optimized, free of carrier branding and have features that may have been previously disabled.

According to CyanogenMod installation statistics, the HTC Desire (codenamed Bravo) has over 70,000 of the aforementioned half a million installations, followed by the HTC Evo 4G (Supersonic) at just over half with roughly 39,000 installs. While this is a great milestone for the ROM community as a whole, when contrasted with the fact that 500,000 Android devices are being activated daily, it becomes glaringly obvious that many regular consumers are running out-of-date versions of Android that have been hampered by carriers and OEMs who want to brand their devices.

The efforts of a single soul have come a long way, so congratulations to cyanogen and the entire CM Community on their milestone mark. The more users taking control of their own devices, means the less carriers can control.

The LG Optimus 2X or the T-Mobile G2X is the current favorite phone of the CyanogenMod team. In fact, Cyanogen himself uses this phone. All this, just because the handset does not have a locked boot loader.

The Cyanogen team has already started working on bringing CyanogenMod 7 to the Optimus 2x and the G2X. The CM team has even started cooking out CM7 based nightly ROMs for the handsets.

Since this is a nightly ROM, Optimus 2X and G2X owners should keep in mind that there will be some bugs and issues with the ROM.

CyanogenMod is the best AOSP based Custom ROM out there. In its latest version, the ROM is based on Android 2.3.x Gingerbread, and packs some useful features like Profile Support, Theme Manager and DSP Manager.

The LG Optimus 2X/G2X is the most powerful phone to be supported by the CyanogenMod team until now. Hopefully, the CM team will also support the upcoming dual-core monster the Samsung Galaxy S II. It has already been confirmed that the Galaxy S II will have an unlocked boot loader.

Interested Optimus 2X/G2X owners should head over to this link to download CM7 nightly ROM for their handset. For more information about CM7 on the LG Optimus 2X/G2X, users should head over to this thread.

The final version of CyanogenMod 7 has finally been released! After being in testing for more than 4 months, and releasing more than 35+ nightly builds, the CM team has released the final version of one of the most popular custom ROM based on AOSP.

CM7 is based on the latest version of Android i.e. Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), and features some nifty features like a DSP Manager, Incognito mode in browser, multiple lock screen styles, Phone Goggles and support for themes!

I have already been using CM7 right since the first RC was released, and I have absolutely no doubt that it’s the best AOSP based ROM out there.

The whole change-log of CM7 can be found here. Readers interested in flashing CM7 on their Android handset must make sure that their handset is already rooted. The easiest way of flashing CM7 on a rooted Android handset, is to use ROM Manager. Alternatively, readers can download CM7 for their handset from here.

It was nearly a month ago that the Nexus One got a minor Android update to 2.2.1. Hopefully, the Motorola Droid will also be getting the Android 2.2.1 update soon. However, impatient people – like me – can head over to My Droid World forums and download their just released Android 2.2.1 based ROM for the Droid.

Droid owners need to make sure that their handset is rooted. Both, deodexed and odxeded version of the ROM available for download. The ROM is a pretty basic one and is pre-rooted with Busybox installed. If Droid owners want to try Android 2.2.1 on their handset, they should have a look at CM6.1 RC3 ROM as it is also based on Android 2.2.1

CyanogenMod Custom ROM is definitely the best custom ROM for any Android phone out there. It is the most popular, the most advance and the most feature rich custom ROM in the Android modding community. However, only a few lucky’ devices are supported by CyanogenMod ROMs including HTC Hero, EVO 4G etcetera. Now the folks behind CyanogenMod ROMs have added support for three new devices the HTC Wildfire, Acer Liquid and the Samsung Vibrant.

They are also eyeing to support the latest HTC phones including the HTC G2. The support for these devices will be added in the upcoming CM6.1 Custom ROM. The 6.1 update will also bring with it new features like touch-to-focus, kernel updates for many device and performance improvements.

These folks have even encouraged hackers to join the CM team. This way the CM team will be able to support more devices.

The CyanogenMod guys mentioned all this and more in a blog post. Click here to read the post.